After the solid start to the Potter franchise leading to the series high of Azkaban, we suddenly take a little stumble in quality with The Goblet of Fire. It’s not awful, but it is a clumsily told story. All too often jumping from scene to scene with seemingly little attention paid to creating a believable narrative flow. Some of the character motivations seemed off too, and at times Potter and friends were almost unrecognizable. Especially Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), who’s sudden weird turn against Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) early on in the story seemed really contrived.

The film does have its moments though, and the simplistic story does eventually lead to the reveal of ‘he who must not be named’, played with sinister class by Ralph Fienes. The visual effects as expected are extremely good, but I found the general look of the film less focused, and on one or two occasions badly framed.

Movie Prep:

Goblet of Fire makes no attempt to provide any back story to the existing characters, and it’s not much better at introducing the new ones. This entry of the franchise cannot stand on its own, and you’ll have to make sure you’ve watched the first three films before you take this on.

Best Format:

Despite some irregularity with the visuals, this is still best viewed in a theater. At home a HD showing is recommended.

Worst moment for me:

The Potter v Ron contrived fall out. Ron turns on Potter – his friend of several years now – after his name is spat out of the fiery goblet. Never mind that Ron already witnessed his two brothers try to fool the Goblet to accept underage tournament contestants, and fail. Never mind that Harry actually seemed pretty happy about not being eligible for the contest. Never mind the fact that in the years they’ve known each other, Harry has never once shown the slightest interest in his own fame.